Tom Cruise Thanks Steven Spielberg for “Everything You’ve Done to Preserve Cinema”

Steven Spielberg was honored at the Museum of Modern Art’s 2026 Film Benefit on Thursday night, and he brought out the big guns.

Tom Cruise, Martin Scorsese, Stephen Colbert, Emily Blunt, Steve Martin and Martin Short, Bruce Springsteen and Ariana DeBose all came out to pay tribute to the filmmaker at the NYC event, which was presented by Chanel.

Cruise kicked things off, telling Spielberg that “since I was a young man, you were very generous with me, always, on movie sets, but at your home with [wife] Kate [Capshaw]; the meals that we had together, the hours that you shared talking about your films and what inspired making them, the stories about you as a young boy with that eight millimeter camera. You were gracious enough to listen to my stories about the jobs that I took so that I could buy the tickets to go see your movies.” The star continued that it was “an absolute privilege” to make two movies together (Minority Report and War of the Worlds) and “I’m grateful for what I’ve learned from you, for all the films that you’ve given us, for your love of the audience and for everything you’ve done to preserve cinema.”

During his time at the podium, Scorsese recalled when he was once in the middle of production and started watching a movie in his hotel room that he was “struck by.”

“I hadn’t really had coffee yet and I had a moment of despair. ‘What am I doing with this? What am I doing working like this on these films when these young filmmakers are out there doing things like this? Beautiful, new visions. Look what they’re up to! New ways of shooting, telling new stories. I’m so out of touch,'” he told the room. “And then the title came up: Lincoln. And so at that point, I took my coffee, suited up, and just bolted out there to make another picture.” Scorsese, teasing his friend “we’ve known each other since 1972, and how did we get to be in our 80s?,” added that Spielberg is “the epitome of the great picture maker” and “the films he has made have changed the world.”

When it came time to accept his honor, Spielberg repaid the compliment, telling Scorsese he is “the G.O.A.T of our entire generation, and you’re the filmmaker I most hope to be when I grow up someday.” The filmmaker also reflected on having “one of the best times of my career” making his recent release Disclosure Day, and expressed that “standing alone up here feels wrong. Filmmaking is collaborating, and when I get singled out on a night like this, it reminds me that I have never stood alone on any set, on any location, on any soundstage.”

The A-list guest list also included Drew Barrymore, Cate Blanchett, Robert De Niro, Jeff Goldblum, Eve Hewson, Marcello Hernandez, John Krasinski, Donna Langley, Spike Lee, Lorne Michaels, Michelle Pfeiffer and David E. Kelley, Zoe Saldaña, Christopher Walken and Michelle Williams, with DeBose performing “Somewhere“ from West Side Story and Springsteen making a surprise appearance to close out the night.

“One of the great pleasures on the Jersey Shore in 1975 was night swimming, preferably naked, on one of those 90-degree, 80 percent humidity August Jersey nights, preferably with someone you wanted to have sex with,” Springsteen joked, and with the release of Jaws, “Steven Spielberg fucked that up. He fucked it up good.”

Chanel — which has a long history of supporting cinema and new voices — collaborated with MoMA on the 18th annual Film Benefit, which raised funds to support The Museum of Modern Art’s collection of film.